Down Argentine Way (1940)

Down Argentine Way is a 1940 American musical comedy-drama film made in Technicolor by Twentieth Century Fox. It stars Don Ameche, Betty Grable, and Carmen Miranda, with Charlotte Greenwood, J. Carrol Naish, Henry Stephenson, Katharine Aldridge, Leonid Kinskey, and Chris-Pin Martin. The film made a star of Grable in her first leading role for the studio, although she had already appeared in 31 films, and it introduced American audiences to Miranda.

The film was directed by Irving Cummings and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck from a screenplay by Karl Tunberg and Darrell Ware, based on a story by Rian James and Ralph Spence. The cinematography was by Leon Shamroy and Ray Rennahan, and the costume design was by Travis Banton. The American-composed music was by Harry Warren and Jimmy McHugh, with lyrics by Mack Gordon and Al Dubin. Choreography was done by Nick Castle.

Shooting lasted for 10 months in which members of the film's crew traveled approximately 35,000 miles (56,000 km). A second unit was sent to Buenos Aires for location establishing shots, returning with approximately 20,000 feet (6,100 m) of film, and another group flew to New York City and filmed Miranda for over a month. Miranda was then performing South American songs in the Broadway production The Streets of Paris. She was thus a prominent participant in the film although she spent no time in Hollywood.

In 2014, Down Argentine Way was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.